VIDEO: August congressional recess protests top 400

posted by Lana N. | 3pt
April 25, 2013

Voters across America have capped an unbelievably active month of August with a grand total of over 400 protests at congressional events. From a protest outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office in Louisville, Kentucky, to a funeral march in suburban Houston, Texas to mark the death of jobs under Senator John Cornyn's last decade in office, Americans have repeatedly stood up in town halls and outside congressional offices districts around the country. And as I've noted a number of times, even though it's something that the national news has barely mentioned, the local news has definitely paid attention.
Take a look at this compilation of news clips from around the country:
Regardless of the national media near-blackout, local news stations responded to what was happening in the own cities and towns, and we can at least take heart that on average, far more people watch their local news broadcasts over national network or cable news.
It's strange that the national news whiffed on this story. After all, congressional approval ratings are at their worst in history - a meager 12% approve of the job Congress is doing, and it's no secret why congressional poll numbers are sagging. Congress has turned away from jumpstarting the economy and toward negotiating just how much to cut from essential programs like Medicare and Social Security. Meanwhile, the anemic recovery of the past year has completely stalled, adding a net zero new jobs in August, and the unemployment remains stuck above 9%. The national news media has picked up on all of these individual facts, but they seem to have missed the wider narrative of voters actually pushing back on the ground against their representatives in Congress.
So now that the month of August is over, and Congress is heading back to Washington DC after their summer break, what do you think we should do to keep giving them the message to focus on jobs, not cuts?